Ai ga watashi o aishite
by Flareose - Knifepoint Entry
Summary: Naruto was definitely the oddball in team seven what with his strange romantic tendencies and mean spirited like heart. His sensei believed this as well as his teammates; Sakura and Sasuke without so much as a second thought. However... That didn't mean he wasn't good at what he did however, even with his narcissist like personality as well.


**Warnings: Different cartoons and anime references in this chapter, and also a redo of chapter one since I found some errors here and there and also thought I could do a better job in describing the characters more :)**

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_"The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be."_

_― __?_

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**Ai ga watashi o aishite **

**Chapter One: Team seven**

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_**Sunday**_

_**7/19. Two-thirty p.m; Academy rooftop**_

A pinky and the brain copy with a preteen girl like mind, a superiority like prince who he could tell from just looking at thought he was superior to even him; his own sensei since he was now considered rookie of the year with some of the highest grades, regardless of the fact he was given some of the worst scores in cooperation and assertiveness back at the academy.

And last to add the icing on the cake, a fifteen year old narcissist with a darkwing duck complex.

You could say they were his team now, even if by tomorrow that probably wouldn't be the case given the fact personalities like theirs tended to clash with eachother when the word teamwork came to mind, but he'd see soon enough if he was particularly right about that little thought.

However before he did anything else with this fresh out of the academy team of his, it would probably be for the best if he asserted what he knew of them so far... Since he did just so happen to have followed them for the past two weeks in a not so stalker like fashion.

The pinky and the brain copy in the middle of the two boys did seem rather smart, maybe even a little talented given she was an honor student back at the academy. In fact what some would have called a hindrance given her below than average chakra capacity, he called interesting since it seemed it didn't hinder her from pulling off techniques or chakra exercises. With that being said he would even go so far as to say that currently for right now she had the best chakra control out of the three of them.

But that was just it...

_For right now._

The two boys he knew would surpass her soon if not in other areas such as tai-jutsu or nin-jutsu, and there was currently also another problem when dealing with her personality wise.

From what he gathered of her so far from the past two weeks she was the practical embodiment of a preteen girl. From worrying about her hair to which shampoo and conditioner to use - and he wouldn't lie and say that it wasn't rather funny that she used the very same shampoo and conditioner as one of his summons, to gossiping with friends and decorating her journal - which was really a diary by the way as he may have or may have not read a few pages, with hearts and stars and rather bright neon pink things...

Now that wasn't all that bad really.

While now a shinobi she was still fairly young who deserved things from her childhood while they lasted, since later on down the road she would find out what a real shinobi was from the good bad and all in between, but those were just the pros in the matter, what about the cons?

The cons dealt with how far to an extreme she would go to in order to hold that said image.

While learning more of her through out the weeks he realized she didn't really prefer her long hair and had wanted it to be kept short for quite sometime. What stopped this however - or better yet what thought in that pink brain of her's made her continue growing out her hair in the first place was the little itty bitty tiny crush she had on the ice prince in this team. The thoughts of; maybe he'll notice me by today even if it's just a little smile, or maybe he'll ask me to watch him train today and later ask for a date.

Those were probably what some of the thoughts were running through in her little pink brain when she thought of him, but it was foolish all the same in his eyes to do so in hopes that he would see something out of all the other girls. Especially since this was over a rumor. A rumor that had started around the academy that stated the Uchiha liked girls with long hair - which he only found out when reading some of the earlier entries in her diary by the way.

Now civilians or any non-shinobi for that matter wouldn't have found a problem with this. Most if not all the other girls in the academy did this some point in time in their life, and hell, probably still did even when they found they weren't on the same team as the ice prince. Shinobi however, would have found this mildly dangerous considering what keeping the hair long stood as; which was a challenge.

Only the best or better yet the ones confident enough in their abilities did something like this, but Kakashi speculated that Sakura didn't know so much about a shinobi's moral or code when it came to certain natures and practices.

Now if it wasn't keeping the hair long that signaled as one of the cons...

Then it was her dieting.

Since she was eleven in fact.

That matter was not just a mildly thing to overlook until she got older and realized ahead of time, considering that now, yes now, right at this very second her bones could be degenerating. Right now she did have curves that were growing in, which meant that her little dieting wasn't at the point where she would faint if she were on a mission, but then again while she wasn't just skin and bones he could clearly see little meat on her arms and such.

This was quite the dangerous game she was playing to impress that Uchiha who was sitting right next to her, but no matter how smart someone was even for her standards, they still needed their strength to help them pull through. To help their very team pull through when working together.

What would even hinder her more when it came to that said teamwork other than her strength, was her sometimes selfish attitude towards people. If reading that dairy was anything to go by, then that would also count the time she broke her friendship with one of the clan's children for that very same Uchiha who was sitting right next to her.

He supposed she could still have the best chakra control all she wanted in this team, but if she kept that little dieting of her's then it was going to hinder her progress shorty afterwards. Being the veteran shinobi he was he'd seen it before and knew the effects it did to certain people. Shinobi like her tended to quit after a certain point of time either from believing they're career of choice was too difficult for them to accomplish even with training, or having they're first C-rank or B-rank mission end rather terribly.

He. Didn't. Want. That. To. Happen.

For this girl...

For this very team she needed to be strong both physically and mentally, like heaven and earth.

If they ended up passing his little test tomorrow he would like to make her overcome these things, make her realize what it meant to be a true kunoichi of this village, but until then he suppose this was how she was for now.

A pinky and the brain complex with a preteen'd girl's mind.

Now for the second one on his list... Which was none other than he prince of ice who breathed fire; Uchiha Sasuke.

Sasuke of what he'd seen from the past two weeks - and from reading his journal which was again really a diary that he may have or may have not read as well, which was also a neon color being purple and having little stickers of tomatoes and shurikens on them, which also made him wonder why that seemed like such a coincidence, was a quite boy.

He never talked when not spoken to even with a swarm of girls surrounding him at his desk asking every type of question in the book. As a matter of fact about the only times he did talk was if a teacher were involved, but even then if it wasn't necessarily needed or avoidable then he wouldn't.

At the academy he did nearly everything with the word perfection practically slapped in red ink on his face, and his home was no different it seemed. Then again he had been the son of Fugaku so a certain strictness even after the man's death would have still been there he supposed.

From what Kakashi could tell from a distance he seemed to reminisce constantly if not daily about the past on a bridge near Naka River, which the man himself was not very fond of since it reminded him to much of himself. Actually... A lot of things the boy did reminded him to much of himself. That's why the little things that the teachers would praise him over such as staying quite in class and being the perfect model student that others should follow... Never sat right with him.

Because there was no respect involved.

From the teachers standpoint of course they respected Sasuke since he did things the right way, the shinobi guide's way.

From Sasuke's standpoint however he couldn't feel a thing for them unless it would perfect his image for a better chance at power.

That was about the only difference there was when it came to the two of them. Sasuke was a boy looking for power, who would probably always be looking for power. The teachers couldn't see that, and in the process only thought the boy had slight issues dealing with cooperation and assertiveness and that was it, but under their very noses it ran far deeper than that.

The Hokage saw it and so did he from his own personal experiences.

He understood it was anger and jealousy the boy felt before the massacre. Anger at his brother for being the one who was always excepted by their father, and jealousy for being one of the last things the man would think of when the day ended. Angry at himself for not being strong like Itachi when he was his age, and jealous when his father and clan constantly compared the two of them.

He knew that somewhere there was a line from jealousy and anger, to being proud and respectful to his family. Because no matter how jealous he may have been towards his brother he still had respected him and his father's wishes, even wanting to emulate and join the military police force when he grew up.

But that had to change one way or another, and so it did.

Now he was stuck with this boy who was as broken and fixed at the same time. A boy who hid well from others that what he really wanted was power and nothing more, who hated the fact that he would have to work with others and was probably denying the truth of the real reason why they were put into teams. A boy who with having that superiority complex probably believed himself to be the strongest when it came to the other two on his team.

And a boy with knowing - because he had to know, that he wasn't stronger than him, still believed he was superior in every since of the word perfection practically slapped on his face.

The superiority complex of the boy's and his twisted version of anger was going to have to change if he was going to be a part of this team, so maybe that little test of his by tomorrow could help with that. If not then if they passed it would take further study of the boy's mind to know just what he was dealing with here, which he wouldn't mind doing if they did.

He would make sure to keep a sharp eye on him during the assessment however, to make sure if he was working as a team with the other two if he did figure out what the survival test was and not just... Use them like he once did to Rin and Obito.

And then there was the last of the three on his list... The teenager who was the strangest oddball out of the three of them.

With his hair slicked back with blue gel making it look green and with the sunlight directed on it at just the right angle, he looked like the very definition of the word oddball.

Now, given that once upon a time he had an oddball on his team too this wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing, at least that's what he would have thought anyways... If this one wasn't just plain cruel sometimes and belittled people when doing so.

_"Okay so maybe I had high standards for jōnin, but that was just pathetic sensei. If you couldn't even dodge some dumb eraser from above you then how the hell do you plan on teaching us when you're just as pathetic as the dirt I walk upon? I mean shit man, can't even dodge an eraser than how are you going to dodge my boot upside your head?"_

That alone had been one of the _fondest _memories he had today, and it was all thanks to the narcissist with a darkwing duck complex himself; Uzumaki Naruto.

Other than being older than both pinky and the brain and ice prince since he failed the academy exam not once, or twice, but three times he wondered just how he brought his grades up to rivaling that of Sasuke's, let alone graduating.

But yes if it was hard to tell - because he knew it was, this was none other than the runner up of rookie of the year.

It was strangely impressing of how he was just a couple of years back dead last only to pick himself back up, dust off the dirt and grime people tended to shed on him from being the _dobe _of the academy, and continue running the race of becoming a shinobi.

But that didn't mean he wasn't cruel when he entered that race again.

From becoming mean spirited to a certain point was just one of the things he did, the other was his rather strange narcissist ways of not only being objective and callous to others... But also to himself.

Strange wasn't it?

What was even stranger was he didn't find this out by observing the boy, but had in fact once again seen this rather strange journal - that was a diary by the way, which also just so happened to be neon in the color of yellow making it appear in a gold like shine.

Apart from him being shocked that the boy actually rather enjoyed plants and was a gardener, who made herbal like medicine from the leaves and stems of his plants, he also found that he was quite the glutton when it came to money. Of course everything he did he earned as he saw the boy didn't live in that little apartment complex as he had when he was younger, but now lived in one of nicer quality both in it's structure and neighborhood.

Now all of this couldn't have been done with the money the Hokage would give him on a monthly bases he knew, and so it was later on that first day around six-thirty in the evening that he found out exactly how the teen was able to pay for something like that.

He was the delivery boy for Ichiraku Ramen.

Yep.

How Teuchi and Naruto found a way to balance out his shinobi career with a villager's job he'd never know, but it was rather impressing in a begrudging sort of way.

He had wondered how the teen would have been able to even afford something like that, and found that even if he was a rather cruel person and just plain mean spirited sometimes, he was still a hardworking man at heart... And that in itself made him smile a little bit.

Of course that didn't last when those days would pass by while Naruto was in the academy and making every other kid - even Sasuke, feel like utter shit. It also didn't help that he was on par with said boy in some aspects, as he would sometimes win in duels Iruka set up for the students.

Seeing Sasuke laid on his back while he tried desperately to get Naruto's steeled toe boot from his chest, all the while the blonde laughing cruelly at the boy only to slam his foot again against his ribs was rather painful to see.

It made him get a fill of what the boy was like when it came to others and not just himself, which was probably something about the boy's narcissist like nature he'd never get used to.

Maybe it was because it made him realize a little to much that the small boy who would wear that rather hideous orange jumpsuit and green goggles was gone, or maybe because the man his father and mother wanted him to be wasn't there, and probably would never be if this was kept up.

The now Naruto gel'd up his hair and started wearing clothes that he felt fit his image, or threw people off was maybe a better term of use. The clothes he felt fit his image were always soldier like which would have been strange for someone like him, if he didn't make his point across in times. What was really strange in a oddball sort of way was he could work with people just fine when it came to group activities- minus the cruel comments he would through at them sometimes that is.

So while Sasuke got the lowest scores in cooperation and assertiveness Naruto actually rose above those scores, getting some of the best even better than Neji's own. His chakra control became better as well being just slightly lower than Sasuke's own, which meant even if he was cruel to others that didn't mean he didn't train his ass off getting there to the top with just mean spirited talking alone.

He also became quite the... The romantic as well, which was just odd for a narcissist to do in general anyways, especially one like him. It didn't stop with his crush on Sakura - who he without better of the term seemed to be more disinterested in as the years passed, it went farther than that actually... Which he meant by boys being sometimes the interest as well.

Moving on from his love life - as he only found that out when spying on the three of them with shadow clones, only to find that during they're lunch hour Naruto trying, the key word being _trying, _to flirt with one anbu who he caught on the roofs.

Until said anbu ditched him like the wind never to return.

When Naruto looked oh so heartbroken it had been rather painful to watch.

Yep, painful indeed.

But back to the matter at hand however he believed that Naruto would benefit from being in this team, of course he would have to pass first, along with the other two, but if all three of them managed to do that then he would try and forge them into the strongest shinobi they could be, and hell maybe even surpass him when doing so to.

"Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves. One at a time." after analyzing them from they're suppose strengths weaknesses and characteristics he was ready to hear their own personal thoughts, which would only help him out further for tomorrow's survival test.

Sakura was the first to have a confused look on her face. "Introduce ourselves," she questioned him uncertainly. "Well, what are we suppose to say then sensei?"

Rolling his shoulders lazily about to her question he signed carelessly as he held out his palms to give simple, but useful examples for them to use, "things you like, things you hate, hopes and dreams for the future, hobbies... Things like that."

"Hey hey eraser haired grey, why don't you tell us stuff first so before we talk tell us about you so we can see how this is suppose to work." the narcissist himself Naruto spoke up with the most lopsided grin on his face and an unnecessary raised hand.

In return he pointed an unnecessary finger at himself, looking as innocent as a child who's hand was in the cookie jar, "Me? Well I guess that would be alright for now." crossing his arms over his chest once again his eyes shifted lazily over his three students.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. Things I like is none of your business. Things I hate is none of your business. My hopes for this stupid world is none of your business. My dreams for this backwards world is none of your business. My hobbies are terrifying even to the Hokages." cue Sakura raising her hand now with a more confused look on her face than before.

"B-but sensei the Shodai, Nidaime and Yondaime are all dead."

"Oh I know."

Sakura happened to turn pale rather quickly after that and Sasuke just stared - or glared... Depending really at his sandals a little more.

Naruto seemed fine however.

"Okay you're next pinky and the brain." besides her mouth opening slowly as for he guessed another silent question, depending really, she seemed fine now. She even seemed more fine when turning her half lidded eyes to her left.

"W-well um... You know I uh..." her hands were fidgeting in her lap now as she continued to shift her eyes to the left. "I'm Haruno Sakura, w-what I like uh," another shifted gaze to the left. "I mean the person I like is," there was a strange noise coming from the back of her throat and this time her whole head turned to the left. "My hobby is... Uh..." Sasuke started to stare or glare at the clouds now, depended really. Just then another strange noise came from the pinkett. "My dream for the future is..." another head turned left then a squeal.

"And... What do you hate."

The answer was instantaneous.

"Naruto!"

"Oh really, is that what you really think?" the boy himself questioned as he shifted his laid body to look at her. "I mean really and truthfully now."

"Without a doubt," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest giving Naruto a disgusted look when doing so. "You mean spirited bastard." now that made Kakashi lift an eyebrow.

"Huh, oh yeah?" he began to glare at her which she returned tenfold. "Well don't forget that you, yes you, you tokyo mew mew ripoff and duck duck goose over there are on my team now and that what I say goes. If you don't follow my rules, yes mine, than the both of you can get bent." he said with all the vigor of a seriously pissed off killer who just found out his target escaped.

Sakura stuck her tongue out childishly at the threat, and Naruto just proceeded to roll his eyes before he too stuck his tongue out at the weary looking eyes of one Uchiha Sasuke.

"Okay okay, enough of that now." Kakashi said with eye widen and a hand gesture for them to break it up with voice strangely pitched high near the end.

"Alright mister ice prince, it's your turn."

With once again eyes trained - quite literally in fact at his feet Sasuke began to speak. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura was developing a small blush on her cheeks now and Naruto once again rolled his eyes at his new teammate. "I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything." that made pinky and the brain think a little.

"What I have is not a dream for I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy, a certain someone. Depending on before or after I do that however, I will make this village remember that the Uchiha still stand tall. I will even if it's by my last dying breath reform the military police force and become a true leader that my clan can be proud of."

Kakashi stared at Sasuke with what looked like a lazed look, but inside he was actually a little proud of him. After all this time he believed the boy to be lost, like he once was, only to find out now that he still held on to apart of one of his old dreams. _That was rather interesting to hear. _Even if his dream was slightly warped since his brother killed his clan, and even if he would have liked a little more emotion than the silent anger/determined glare he was staring him with which was just slightly scary in a sense of the word, it was a start.

However that's when Naruto decided it was time to roll over onto his stomach with his elbows supporting his weight and just stare at Sasuke.

"The fuck did you just say you little shit?" you couldn't tell now but Kakashi's mouth opened as wide as it possibly could go as all eyes turned to Naruto. "Well now ain't that something... We just formed this little team of ours and now you want to kill one of us?" that's when the teen cracked his knuckles, making Sasuke wince in the process. "Can't say I didn't see it coming though."

Sasuke was once again looking at the narcissist wearily while slowly inching himself away from the two. "You couldn't even wait until after the chunin exams to say something like that could ya, nope, you just had to do it before that didn't cha?"

"N-naruto calm down." Sakura tried as she saw her crush shake his head in what she assumed was absolute horror.

"No, I think he got his feelings right across so why not let's fight it over right here and now duck duck goose." Sasuke only shook his head faster. "Don't worry princy boy I'm right here so hurry it up and come at me bro." Naruto made a gesture to stand but Sasuke finally thought it was time to speak up.

"I-it's not you it-it's someone else. Not you or Sakura at all I swear!" for the first time ever he sounded truly terrified, making Sakura look on in shock with mouth open and agape.

"Oh..." with still one leg bent to stand up or possibly jump Sasuke, Naruto smiled afterwards like a peace lover as he laid back down lazily and stretched, "well next time be more forward okay? I mean I know we're shinobi and all that jazz, but I can barely speak all that philosophical symbolic shit shinobi talk like sometimes when it comes to the darkside and blah blah bla shit."

"..."

That... Had been one of the most strangest things he'd ever seen before.

When he mentioned that Sasuke should have shone some kinda other emotion before, he didn't mean like this, in where the boy almost pissed himself when a confused angry teammate comes after his head from being paranoid.

"Hey hey eraser haired grey is it my turn yet?" he couldn't even tell when he clocked out, but judging on the time he'd say for about five minutes. He turned his still wide eye towards his sensei's son... On second thought no, his sensei wife's son.

That sounded better.

"Sure..." he was really not trying to call Naruto red hot-blooded habanero so forgive him if he was acting strangely. "Go for it... Red hot chili pepper." well given the teenager giving him a rather funny look he could say he succeeded, close enough anyways.

"Well my likes are training and becoming stronger and only becoming even stronger to surpass other shinobi to prove and prove to them all that I'm the best. I Also thinking about nothing more than how much money I can earn, with the occasional thought about jewels here and there such as diamonds, white corals and zircon, and uh, maybe the clear quartz sometimes."

Kakashi had to blink slowly because that was nothing like what his father or mother would say, nothing at all. Not to mention what he just said... Was just pure greed with a bit of pride thrown into the mix. It was again that he had to remind himself this wasn't the little boy the Hokage would tell him about in the past.

"What I dislike is when someone stops me from reaching the goal of me getting what I want, and what I need to do in order to earn what I want, because what I want I earn and then I get, that's how it works. If someone tries to stop that or hinder it in anyway then those people can get bent for all I care," he said all this with a dark edge in his tone making Sakura and Sasuke widen they're eyes in slight disturbance of their new teammate.

"My hopes and dreams for me in the future is to find a cute doll-face so I can come home from a tired day at work and kiss someone on the lips." you know that would have sounded adorable if he didn't sound like an old man. "Or maybe a little harem, I haven't really thought of someone or more actually being in my house before until recently."

When he found that the teen stopped for longer than three minutes afterwards, he shifted his eyes from the ground towards him. "And, hobbies?"

"Do you want to know my hobbies?" Naruto asked when meeting his eyes.

"..."

"..."

"Not really..." he admitted.

Naruto just smiled with eyes creased closed and tight.

"Then don't ask you stupid..."

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Meanwhile the Hokage was enjoying a nice late lunch of dumplings and genmaicha tea.

He was rather happy today since he wasn't bothered by either of his council advisors - even if once upon a time they were considered friends in the past ever since those two had became apart of his official council they only succeeded in getting a lot more annoying... And that went double for Danzo.

It was now in this time of peace that he could really enjoy himself, so as he took a sip of his tea he looked over towards the fallen heroes that gave their very lives for that one word; peace.

_Minato, your son is growing up before the village's very eyes, and has already proved himself to be one of the best in the academy by far. Surely he will grow up to only become stronger just like you and Kushina and follow in your footsteps to becoming Hokage. _he then smiled... Even when he could have sworn the portrait gave him a funny look. _I have a good feeling about this generation... Well these new kings to be more exact. _then he chuckled.

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**In Naruto Rise of a Ninja, there was a mini game where you went to Ichiraku Ramen and delivered ramen for money, so I just decided to use that to one of my advantages in this story. **

**So some is probably questioning why Naruto is older than Sakura and Sasuke in this fic, but let me just say now that it should be natural that Naruto would be fifteen years old. It was stated during the Neji and Naruto fight in the chunin exams that he failed the academy exams three times, so how did he do that when he's the same age - if not a little younger given the months, as Sakura and Sasuke?**

**Because I know without a doubt Sakura nor Sasuke failed at any point in time.**


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